Brick Making in Antiquity

 

Unexcavated brick wall at Harappa in India.

Brick makers were a skilled class of people in the ancient world. They served the regional chiefs who constructed fortifications, palaces, temples and pyramids. Many structures built in the Bronze Age were made of stone. However, bricks were used to lay out the foundation of a new building. Stacked bricks served as markers. Some buildings contained bricks that were inscribed with prayers and dedications, as is done today on the corner stones of some public buildings and churches.

Mud bricks date back to Mehrgarh (4500 B.C.), and baked bricks were a hallmark of the Indus Valley Civilization. Archaeologists have found clay or mud brick structures, often in ruins, dating to as early as 4800 B.C.

The bricks were pressed into molds and then dried in the sun or baked in ovens (kilns). The molds made it possible to produce bricks that were uniform in size and shape.

Baked bricks form this wall. The strength and height are increased by alternating rows of bricks running in different directions.

Kiln-baked bricks were stronger and were used for the outer defensive walls and for structures near flood zones. 

Brick kilns (shown below) were discovered at Egyptian Teudjoi (Ankyronpolis) south of Beni Suef, on the east bank of the Nile. 

Genesis 11:3 tells us that the towers in Mesopotamia were built of fired brick. Mud or clay bricks were used to build temples, palaces, entrances to royal tombs, houses, walls, and pyramidal towers called ziggurats. The Mesopotamian ziggurats were built with a core of sun-dried mud brick and an exterior covered with kiln-baked brick. The term "ziggurat" comes from the Akkadian word ziqqurratu, which is translated as "rising building" (from the ancient Akkadian zaqâru, "to rise high").

The Sumerians used bricks to create arched entrances to royal tombs. Sumerian arches were made by stacking bricks on top of each other in steps that met in the center. Around 3000 B.C, builders created a special wedge-shaped brick mold that allowed the bricks to fit even more closely together above a doorway.

The Sumerians and ancient Egyptians built shrine cities and fortifications using clay bricks mixed with straw. According to Exodus 5:7, Pharaoh ordered the Egyptian taskmasters: "You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw."

To increase the brick production teams of brick makers competed against each other. This image (above) of men making bricks appears on the wall of the tomb of Rekmara, a ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1550-1292 BC). 

The land of Canaan and its principal cities, such as Hazor, Kadesh, and Jerusalem, were under Egyptian rule during the Eighteenth Dynasty. Cities under Egyptian rule were fortified with walls many feet thick. The north wall protecting Lachish was 17 feet thick and the outer walls of Gezer were 14 feet thick. These fortified shrine cities are called the "high places" in the Bible. 

Jerusalem was named Jebus because it was the city of the Jebusites who built their royal complex on the south-eastern hill of Jerusalem. The old Jebusite wall was made of stone. Most monuments and fortification walls built by high kings were made of stone. It appears that stone masons were a rank above brick makers.

Related reading: Bricks and Urbanization in the Indus Civilization Rise and Decline; The High Places; Ancient Twin Cities; The Tower of Babel; Tar as an Adhesive and Sealant; Pharaoh's Brick Makers

Olive Oil Production in Antiquity

 

Ancient olive tree

Olives were a natural resource in the Near East 6,000 years ago. Ancient documents mention an olive tree in Heliopolis (biblical On) during V Dynasty (BC 2494 to 2345). Trade records from the IV Dynasty (BC 2613 to 2494) list olive oil among the goods traded from Syria and Canaan. The olive tree appears in the hieroglyphs, drawings, and statues of high-ranking Egyptians, and objects made of olive wood were found in Tutankhamun's tomb.

Olive trees grew in the region of Lake Chad during the time Noah lived there. Genesis 8:11 recounts how a dove returned to Noah’s ark carrying an olive branch in its beak. Both the olive branch and the dove are symbols of peace. Olive trees grew in the Hoggar and Air mountains and along a 750-mile plain leading south to Lake Chad.

Production and uses of olive oil

Olive oil was used for lamp fuel, medicinal ointment, making soap, skin moisturizer, perfumes, cooking oil, and as a food. Olive oil was used in offerings to God. Leviticus 8:26 speaks of offerings of bread cakes anointed with oil.

Olive oil was used to anoint rulers, priests, and warriors. God said to Samuel, “Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons” (I Sam.16:1). When David was presented before Samuel, the prophet “took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward” (I Sam.16:13). God said, “I have found My servant David; with My holy oil, I have anointed him” (Psalm 89:20).

The word "messiah" means "the anointed one" and the substance used for anointing was olive oil. The Hebrew word for “olive tree” is es shemen, which means ‘tree of oil.” It is from the root meaning “to shine” and is related to shemesh, the Hebrew word for the sun.

A donkey turns the stone that presses the olives.

To make oil the olives were mashed in a mortar, crushed in a press, or stomped underfoot the way grapes are crushed to get the juice. Ancient stone presses have been found throughout the Near East, Israel, and the Arabian Peninsula. The circular grinding stones, like the circular threshing floors, reminded people of the Most High God, whose emblem was the sun.

The Encyclopedia Judaica gives this explanation of the process of oil production:

“The olives were beaten down from the trees with poles (Isa.17:6), and were pounded into pulp in mortars or by the feet (Micah 6:15). The pulp was placed in wicker baskets from which the lightest and finest oil could easily run off This grade of oil, known as beaten oil (Heb. Shenen katit), is mentioned five times in the Bible. It served as fuel for the lamp in the Tabernacle (Ex.27:20; Lev.24:2) and as an element in the obligatory daily meal offerings (Ex.29:40; Num.28:5). King Solomon traded this type of oil with Hiram of Tyre in exchange for cedar and cypress wood (I Kings 5:10-11). After the removal of the beaten oil, a second grade was produced by heating and further pressing the pulp. . ."

The oil was then stored in wooden vats or stone jars.

Related reading: Images of Near Eastern Oil Presses; Threshing Floors and Solar Symbolism

Bees and Honey in Antiquity

 

Nilotic people kept honeybees as early as 3500 BC. Egyptians made hives out of pipes of clay and stacked one on top of another (as shown in the image above). The hives were moved up and down the Nile on rafts, allowing the bees to pollinate flowers that were in season. A marriage contract has been found which states, "I take thee to wife... and promise to deliver to thee yearly twelve jars of honey."

The bee became the symbol of royalty in Lower Egypt where a temple known as “the House of the Bee” was visited by women seeking counsel. King Tut was buried with a jar of honey. When his tomb was opened, the jar of honey was discovered, and the honey was unspoiled.

Many examples of bee and honey hieroglyphs have been found in ancient Egyptian records.

Indo-European languages have words for honey which are based on the two phonetically very similar proposed Proto-Indo European (PIE) roots: medu and melid. The name Melissa is related to the word for honey. The root is found in the Anglo-Saxon word "mead," an alcoholic beverage made with honey, water, and a fermenting agent. In Spanish, the word for honey is miel.

The biblical name Deborah is a reference to bees. Rebecca's nurse, Deborah, was buried near Bethel beneath the “tree of weeping” or the “Oak of Weeping" (Gen. 35:8). The Hebrew word allon can refer to a large tree species, but here probably refers to either an oak, a terebinth, or sycamore fig. There is evidence that graves were sometimes placed beneath fig trees which attracted bees. The wasp lays its eggs inside the ripening figs. The ancients would have observed this as an example of new life. 

Surgical procedures are described in the Edwin Smith papyrus, the world's oldest known surgical document (c. 1600 BC). It describes closing wounds with sutures, application of raw meat to stop bleeding, treatment of head and spinal cord injuries, and preventing and curing infection with honey. Honey draws the moisture out of wounds. It has antimicrobial and antibiotic properties and can kill Staphylococcus and E. coli.

It was not easy to acquire honey because the bees often built their hives in the crevices of high rocks. This late prehistoric drawing from Spain shows a woman on a rope ladder collecting honey while the bees swarm around her.


Related reading: Assessing the Health of Bee Colonies; Oldest Bee Hives Discovered in Israel; The Buzz About Bees; Bees in Religion; Asian Hornets Kill Honeybees; Ancient Mythology About Bees; Deborah's Tree of Weeping; The Sacred Bee in Ancient Egypt; The Fig Tree in Biblical Symbolism

The Religious Symbolism of Gold

 

This crescent-shaped gold collar (lunula) was found in Cornwall, England. The Penwith Lunula is dated to the Early Bronze Age (2500-1550 BC). It was worn by a ruler in England around the same time Abraham became established as a ruler in ancient Edom.

From ancient times, gold has been a highly prized commodity. Gold is mentioned over 400 times in the Bible. The word for gold is similar in these Afro-Asiatic languages: Ancient Egyptian - nub (nwb); Akkadian - dahh-ubu; Arabic - dha-hab; and Hebrew - za-hab.

There is evidence that the finest gold was named for Horus, "the Golden One." The HR root is found in the Assyrian word for gold hur-asu and in the Hebrew words for refined or purified gold - haruz. 

Gold was highly valued among the Nilotic Hebrew for whom it represented the sun, the symbol of the High God and his son HR (Horus in Greek). In the ancient world, kings and judges were believed to be appointed by the High God, and Horus was their patron.

The Egyptian word HR means "the One on high." The Turin Canon, which provides important information on Egypt's early history, describes the predynastic rulers as "Followers of Horus" and many had Horus names. The Horus name (HR, Hor, Hur, Har) is the oldest known among the Nilotic rulers, even before Egypt emerged as a political entity. 

Many early Hebrew rulers had Horus names. Hur is an example. According to Midrash, Hur was Moses’ brother-in-law, the husband of Miriam. Hur’s grandson was one of the builders of the Tabernacle. 1 Chronicles 4:4 lists Hur as the "father of Bethlehem," an early Horite Hebrew settlement.

A chief of the tribe of Asher holds the Horus name Harnepher (1 Chron. 7:36).

Another Horus name is Na-Hor, the name of Abraham's older brother. Nahor ruled over his father's territory in Paddan Aram when Terah died. In ancient Akkadian, Na is a modal prefix indicating service to, affirmation, or affiliation. Na-Hor indicates that this man was a devotee of HR, which in ancient Egyptian refers to the Most High God.

A prayer addressed to Horus says, "For you are he who oversees the gods, there is no god who oversees you!" (Ancient Pyramid Texts, Utterance 573)

One of the most famous images related to Horus was found at Nekhen. This is a gold artifact of Horus under the sign of his totem, the falcon. This great gold plumed falcon represents the son of the Father (Re in Ancient Egyptian). Nekhen was named for Horus of the Falcon: Nekheny.

Horus of Nekhen, the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship (c.4000 BC).

The Hebrew Lived in Regions Rich in Gold

Abraham was a very wealthy Hebrew. This is attested by Genesis 13:2 which states that Abraham was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. Genesis 24:22 says that Abraham's servant delivered a gold ring and two gold bracelets to Rebekah as a gift from her future husband, Isaac.

Some of Abraham's ancestors lived in regions where gold was found both on the surface and in tunnels. Genesis 2:11 designates Ha'vilah as a gold rich area. It was where the waters of the Upper Nile form a V, suggesting the branching of the White and Blue Nile. The land was later known as Nubia, which means "land of gold." Genesis 2 also mentions that the region has Bdellium, a semi-transparent oleo-gum resin extracted from Commiphora wightii and from Commiphora africana. These trees grow in Ethiopia, Eritrea and other parts of East Africa.

In 2007, archaeologists from the Oriental Institute discovered a 4000-year gold-processing center along Nile. The site is called Hosh el-Guruf and is located about 225 miles north of Khartoum. More than 55 grinding stones made of granite-like gneiss were found at the site. The ore was ground to recover the gold, and water was used to separate the flakes from the particle residue. Similar grinding stones have been found at Timnah in southern Israel.

A temple dedicated to Hathor, the mother of Horus, was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timnah by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University. In his book Timna, Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (Timna, p. 183)

Another area described in the Bible as being rich in gold is Ophir. Ophir was in southwest Arabia. This is the territory of Sheba and Ramah (see map below). Every three years Solomon received tribute of gold, silver, sandalwood, precious stones, ivory, apes and peacocks from Ophir. Solomon's navy traveled to Ophir, taking "four hundred and twenty talents of gold from there" (1 Kgs. 9:26-28; 22:48; 2 Chron. 8:17-18; 9:10).

This gold of Ophir was mined heavily and became scarce. This is attested in Isaiah13:12, which says, "I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold and mankind than the gold of Ophir."

The Religious Symbolism of Gold

In ancient times high kings, rulers, and judges were noted by some association with the sun. Many rulers among Abraham's ancestors were believed to be appointed by God as the Creator's representatives of earth. The sun symbol appears as the initial Y (a solar cradle) in the names of these Hebrew chiefs and priests: Yaqtan (Joktan); Yishmael (Ishmael); Yishbak; Yitzak (Isaac); Yacob (Jacob); Yosef (Joseph); Yetro (Jethro); Yeshai (Jesse) and Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus).

The letter Y in Ancient Egyptian is represented by two upright feathers. That symbol also designated one with authority to judge.

The Y-solar cradle also appears as bull horns. The mother of Horus is the only woman in ancient history to be shown wearing the horns to indicate her appointment by divine overshadowing.


Hathor the Overshadowed

Hathor was appointed to bear the "son"of God, Horus. In this image she is shown overshadowed by the sun, the emblem or symbol of the Creator. Hathor foreshadows the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Messiah. When Mary asked the angel how she would conceive a child, seeing that she "knew" no man, Gabriel explained, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." (Lk. 1:25)

Hathor's is often associated with cattle, so it is not surprising that her offspring, Horus, was sometimes portrayed as the golden calf.

Exodus 32:2 says that Aaron fashioned the golden calf from the gold rings worn by the Israelites. We note that Aaron is never criticized or chastened by God for fabricating this Messianic image.


Related reading: The Gold of Ophir; Minoan Golden Bee; Kushite Gold; Nubia in Biblical History; The Golden Calf in Anthropological Context

Biblical Anthropology: Another Reason to Believe

 

Abraham's descendants are as numerous as the stars.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

During the 1990s, some biblical scholars denied the Bible as a reliable source of historical information. This was especially true when it came to the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, and the reign of King David. 

These minimalist or nihilist scholars claimed that the Hebrew Bible was composed in the Persian Period (c.550 BC to 330 BC) and therefore, had no relevance for the study of the Iron Age (c.1200 to 550 BC). See, for example, the work of Israel Finkelstein, doubtless the most famous Israeli archaeologist of our time.

In the 1890s and early 20th century, German higher criticism eroded confidence in the reliability of Scripture. Biblical higher criticism employed historical, archaeological, and literary analysis to understand the biblical texts. This was pioneered in Tübingen, Germany. A key figure of that movement was Friedrich Schleiermacher. The Tübingen School sought to establish the dates and authorship of the various books of the Bible. The advocates of this approach claimed objectivity. However, as with all movements, the agenda of self-advancement took precedent.

The latest movement to understand the Bible employs the tools of cultural anthropology by which the many biblical populations can be studied as objectively as possible. The population that emerges as central to the overall biblical narrative is the Hebrew ruler-priest caste with its moiety structure. Some of the earliest Hebrew rulers are named in Genesis 4, 5, 10, 11, 25 and 36. Analysis of their kinship pattern proves their historicity.

Biblical Anthropology seeks to understand the distinctive features of the Hebrew social structure. A key principle of discovery is to pursue antecedents. A central task of Biblical Anthropology is to uncover antecedents; something coming before what is described in the text. Biblical Anthropology seeks to understand the cultural contexts at the oldest foundations. It is concerned with ancestors and received traditions. What events preceded the events recounted? From what earlier context did certain practices develop? What traces of ancient memory can be uncovered?

The biblical text always speaks of something older, some prior action that solicits a response from later generations. Unless one moves toward that presence, the nature of it remains unknown. Even where later sources attempt to efface an earlier account, as happened with the imposition of a Jewish narrative, the trace has a voice. The prior remains evident. 

Long before the emergence of Judaism, the Hebrew believed in a High God who had a son. The Father and the Son were worshipped at the earliest known site of Hebrew worship at Nekhen on the Nile. The common assumption that monotheism emerged from polytheism does not apply to the biblical Hebrew. The evidence of ancient texts, anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics does not support that assumption. The rudimentary Messianic Faith is expressed in the religion of the Horite and Sethite Hebrew and can be studied in such ancient documents as the Coffin Texts, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and the Pyramid Texts. Many of the Pyramid Texts predate the oldest Hindu texts by at least 1200 years.

Contrary to another popular opinion, monotheism was not invented by Pharaoh Akhenaton and transmitted to the Jews through Moses. Moses, the Horite Hebrew, was the recipient of a much earlier tradition that is "Messianic" in nature because it held that God Father had a divine Son. One of the signs of the Son was the Ram. That helps to explain what Abraham discovered on Mount Moriah.

Biblical Anthropology brings to light the necessity of considering the many contextual incongruities found in the Bible. The Bible presents a complex and layered narrative. Some data pertains to the earliest populations and to the antecedents of the Messianic Faith among Abraham's Hebrew ancestors. Over these older layers are glosses and anachronisms that reflect at least two later sources: the Deuteronomist Historian, and Rabbinic literature. The Deuteronomist writes from the context of the Neo-Babylonian Period, c. 700-300 BC, about 1500 years after the time of Abraham. The Rabbinic insertions reflect an even later period. They date from the first century AD to c. 500 AD.

Understanding the material requires unraveling the interwoven elements and paying attention to the textual and contextual incongruities. A critical reading avoids imposing a presumed order or interpretation on the text. To flesh out the narrative we must notice the incongruities and discrepancies, and what Jacques Derrida calls the trace of the subordinated voices. Those are often the voices of women, especially Hebrew cousin brides, one of the most overlooked groups of the Bible.

Readers of this blog are invited to become better acquainted with the discipline of Biblical Anthropology by which they may become better informed about people of the Bible and gain confidence that the Bible presents verifiable history. 

Related reading: 

BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Get to Know the Biblical Hebrew!

(90) Finkelstein, I. 1996. The Archaeology of the United Monarchy: An Alternative View, Levant 28: 177-187.

(88) Pfoh 2016 "From the Search for Ancient Israel to the History of Ancient Palestine", in I. Hjelm & T.L. Thompson (eds.), History, Archaeology and the Bible Forty Years after “Historicity”: Changing Perspectives 6 (London: Routledge, 2016), pp. 143-158.

Bunimovitz, S., and Faust, A., 2010, Reconstructing Biblical Archaeology: Toward an Integration of Archaeology and the Bible, in Levy T.E. (ed.)

Historical Biblical Archaeology and the Future – The New Pragmatism, London: Equinox, pp. 43-54 | Avraham Faust and Shlomo Bunimovitz - Academia.edu

Mary's Perpetual Virginity and Authority

 

    

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Mary was a virgin in two senses. She was a temple-dedicated Virgin, a custom among the Hebrew priests. Remember Elkanah and Hannah dedicated Samuel to the temple. It was a common practice. Hebrew daughters who served at the temples are described in the Old Testament as women who "watch (צָבָא) at the door of the tabernacle.” Exodus 38:8 states that the laver of copper and its stand of copper were made “from the mirrors of the women who performed tasks at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting” (Hebrew Study Bible, p. 197).

Psalm 68:25 refers to temple women as musicians. "The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were the damsels playing with timbrels.” In the King James, the temple virgins are called "damsels" but the Hebrew word that appears there is alamot. The duties of the alamot included baking bread, brewing beer, weaving, sewing, drawing water, singing, and playing musical instruments such as the sistrum and the timbrel, a type of tambourine. 

Mary, the Mother of our Lord, is designated “almah” in the Scriptures. The word almah (עַלְמָה) is derived from a verb meaning “to conceal” or “to hide away”. Temple virgins were “alamot” because they were cloistered until they married. In Antiquitates judaicae, the historian Flavius Josephus (c.37-100 AD) refers to the cloisters in Book XV, Chapter 11.

It helps to understand the social structure of the Hebrew ruler-priests. According to that society, a temple-dedicated virgin was a high-status bride and usually a patrilineal cousin. As the cousin bride (a second wife), she was not expected to produce an heir. Joseph's heir was his firstborn son by his first wife. Temple-dedicated virgins such as Mary might marry but depending on the vow made at their dedication, the husband might never have sexual relations with her. Certainly, a righteous man such as Joseph would have honored Mary's vow. The Hebrew took sacred vows very seriously.

Hathor, the mother of HR. HR in Ancient Egyptian means Most High One.

To deny Mary's uniqueness is to deny the central miracle of our faith: that she conceived by divine overshadowing (Luke 1:35) just as her Hebrew ancestors anticipated. In their images this miracle is depicted by the sun over the head of HR's mother because the sun was the symbol of the High God for the early Hebrew. 

In the Church, Mary's conception of the Son of God is depicted by an overshadowing dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Both depictions speak of the fulfillment of the first Messianic reference in the Bible: Genesis 3:15. In Joos van Cleve's painting above, The Annunciation c. 1525, a dove hovers above the Virgin Mary. The dove represents the Holy Spirit by whose divine power Mary conceived.

Other images of the Virgin Mary show her holding a spindle, a very early sign of authority among royal women. The spindle symbolized the rabitu's authority. Rabitu was a title for ladies who served as royal officials at Bronze Age water shrines. The term is related to an Ancient Egypt word bity, a reference to the king’s presence in the royal palace. The term also is related to the Akkadian words for water (raatu) and house/shrine (biitu). In the Ugaritic story of Elimelek, the queen mother holds the title rabitu and her emblem is the spindle.

Related reading: Fertility and Water Shrines; The Earliest Known Site of Horite Hebrew Worship; The Influence of Early Hebrew Women; Gender Balance of the Hebrew Social Structure; Solar Imagery of the Proto-Gospel; The Authority of Queen Mothers; The Historical Mary: What We Know

Fertility and Water Shrines

 

Hieroglyph for fresh water among the Nilotes.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Water is universally perceived as a substance necessary for life, and in the ancient world, women visited water shrines to offer prayers for fertility. Water shrines could be at rivers, lakes, wells, or oases. They might be a ritual bathhouse such as the mikveh with stationary waters and a percentage of water from a natural source such as a lake, river, sea, or rain.

The Jewish actress Abbe Feder endured a harrowing, six-year journey to motherhood. Months of disappointment and repeated miscarriages left her spiritually and emotionally depleted. A Jewish friend suggested that she might find relief by frequenting a mikvah, a ritual bath. Abbe had never considered going to the mikvah as a treatment for infertility, but she tried it and eventually she conceived twins. She does not think of the mikvah as a magical treatment, but she admits that repeated visits brought her relief.

Sacred pools are mentioned in the New Testament as places of healing. Jesus sent "a man blind from birth" to the pool of Siloam to complete his healing (Jn 9). John 5:2 gives an account of Jesus healing a paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. These public bathing places were reserved for men, and women had their own more private locations.

The anthropologist Bronislaw Malinoski observed that women of the Trobriand Islands associated conception with sacred pools. Archaeologists found fertility offerings in Tuscany near hot springs reputed for their restorative powers. These fourth century BC offerings had the shape of newborn babies, wombs, penises, and breasts buried in the mud at the bottom of the pools. The offerings suggest that thermal baths were particularly associated with aid in fertility and the health of infants.

In the West African country of Gambia, women hoping to bear children visit the sacred pools of Katchikaly in Bakau and Folonko in Kartong. They go there to pray, drink the water, and wash themselves with the holy water. The women make offerings of salt, sugar, kola nuts, and white candles to the old ladies who guard the pools. Often the visitors take some of the sacred water with them when they leave.


Water Shrines at the Royal Sun Temples

The veneration of the sun as a symbol of the High God was well developed by 3200 BC, as is evidenced by at least 6 sun temples. Among them were the sun temples of Niuserra at Abu Ghurab, the Userkaf Sun Temple, and the Sun Temple at Heliopolis. Heliopolis, which means the “City of the Sun,” was one of the oldest cities on the Nile River. It was occupied since the Predynastic Period (c. 6000 – 3000 BC) and predates the emergence of Egypt as a political entity.

By 3000 BC, the veneration of the sun had received royal patronage. Over the centuries, temples, shrines, and royal complexes were dedicated to it. The wives and daughters of kings ministered to women at the sun city water shrines. Asenath is an example. She lived at Heliopolis, one of the most prestigious sun cities of the ancient world. In Heliopolitan cosmology the watery realms above and below (the "firmaments") were connected by the massive pillars of the temple of Heliopolis. Heliopolis is mentioned in Isaiah 19:18 as one of five Egyptian cities that swore allegiance to the Lord of Hosts.

Royal Sun cities emerged in many parts of the ancient world, especially from the Fifth Dynasty (2465-2323 BC). The temples were oriented so that the rays of the rising sun would shine through the east-facing entrances. The sun also shone on the purification pools. Today we know that solar radiation can purify water.

The sun city water shrines were for purification and healing and the work of the Hebrew ruler-priests caste was connected to rites of water purification, healing, and prayers for fertility of land, beasts, and women. In their worship, the Nilotes associated water and the sun as purifying agents. Exodus 7:15 speaks the custom of the Pharaoh in the early morning to come down from his palace to the Nile River to pray and worship the High God whose emblem was the sun.

Related reading: The Influence of Early Hebrew Women; Hebrew Ruler-Priests at the Ancient Sun Cities; The Ministry of Hebrew Woman at the Sun Cities